A Deficit To A Surplus In Three Lakes

Sharp pencils have produced a surplus from an initial budget deficit in Three Lakes.

Town chair Stella Westfall said in the early work they were about $143,000 dollars over budget. But she says staff and department heads found a way to turn that around...

"...they just did a great job and made recommendations to decrease our expenses. The department heads really tried to be efficient...bottom line is instead of this $143,000 deficit, we ended up with a $34,000 surplus...."

She says the extra money will go into capital expenditures. She says they were able to save money by changing the way health insurance was administered...

"....we kept the same benefit levels for the employees, but we changed our deductibles so the deductibles increased, but the town is still going to reimburse the employees for that amount. So instead of going up about 30 percent, it went up less than 2 percent...."

Westfall says they were able to put road construction, maintenance and repair back to 2009 levels. She says some challenges are the town-owned buildings that need repair.

She says Three Lakes taxpayers will be getting a survey to set priorities for the next budget.

The public hearing on the budget is November 26 at the Three Lakes town hall.